Our usual representations of the opposition between the “civilized” and the “primitive” derive from willfully ignoring the relationship of distance our social science sets up between the observer and the observed. In fact, the author argues, the relationship between the anthropologist and his object of study is a particular instance of the relationship between knowing and doing, interpreting and using, symbolic mastery and practical mastery—or between logical logic, armed with all the accumulated instruments of objectification, and the universally pre-logical logic of practice.
In this, his fullest statement of a theory of practice, Bourdieu both sets out what might be involved in incorporating one’s own standpoint into an investigation and develops his understanding of the powers inherent in the second member of many oppositional pairs—that is, he explicates how the practical concerns of daily life condition the transmission and functioning of social or cultural forms.
The first part of the book, “Critique of Theoretical Reason,” covers more general questions, such as the objectivization of the generic relationship between social scientific observers and their objects of study, the need to overcome the gulf between subjectivism and objectivism, the interplay between structure and practice (a phenomenon Bourdieu describes via his concept of the habitus
), the place of the body, the manipulation of time, varieties of symbolic capital, and modes of domination.
The second part of the book, “Practical Logics,” develops detailed case studies based on Bourdieu’s ethnographic fieldwork in Algeria. These examples touch on kinship patterns, the social construction of domestic space, social categories of perception and classification, and ritualized actions and exchanges.
This book develops in full detail the theoretical positions sketched in Bourdieu’s Outline of a Theory of Practice
. It will be especially useful to readers seeking to grasp the subtle concepts central to Bourdieu’s theory, to theorists interested in his points of departure from structuralism (especially fom Lévi-Strauss), and to critics eager to understand what role his theory gives to human agency. It also reveals Bourdieu to be an anthropological theorist of considerable originality and power.
Two books in one Bourdieu followed a strange organization for this book. The first part is an exposition of his theoretical / philosophical suppositions. The second part is an application of his ideas as applied to anthropology. Anthropologists may find passages in the second part to be brilliant (I have heard some praise Bourdieu's analysis of home-building in small villages in northern Africa). Since I am one of those many "cross-over" readers who read Bourdieu and try to assimilate his ideas into other academic disciplines, I found the second part dull, especially since it dealt with the anthropological analysis of an obscure community of "non-western" people living in northern Africa. To get a flavor of Bourdieu qua working sociologist, a book like Distinction, or Homo Academicus is much more readable and relevant.
On the other hand, the first part of the book contains what I consider the "meat". In part one, Bourdieu attempts to present, in its fullest and most abstact expression, a philosophical system which gives impetus to his work as a sociologist, as an analyst of "practice". In part One we find the "objective-subjective" arguments, habitus, doxa, and all sorts of reference to strange concepts like "structured structuring structures" of the mind. (I wonder what that is?) One noteworthy part of Part One is Bourdieu's discussion of the body, the body's relation to the habitus etc and how people use their bodies as a function of the habitus. Missing, however, are in depth discussions of language, symbolic power, fields, or the idea of cultural capital which make some of Bourdieu's other writings so interesting to non-anthropologists.
One last note: if you are familiar with "Outline of a Theory of Practice" you will find that this book bears a strong resemblance to the aforementioned. This book, in fact, appears to be Bourdieu's effort, 20 years after the publication of "Outline" to revisit the same material, address some of the original objections and challenges made to "Outline" and otherwise refine the expression of his ideas. If you are looking for a document that captures in one place the current state of affairs of Bourdieu's philosophical/anthropological program, look to this document rather than the "outline" since much Bourdieu's ideas are more completely and currently expressed here. Also, if Bourdieu is a new writer to you, this is a very poor first Bourdieu book to read, however. Everything that is wrong with Bourdieu's writing style is exponentially exagerated in this text. Once you are used to Bourdieu's style and ideas, however, this book can become an invaluable resource.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
